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published_or_final_version / Music / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / Music / Master / Master of Philosophy

The rarely performed Piano Quintet in C major (1904) by Béla Bartók is a major work in the chamber music genre although its individuality and significance seem to have gone unnoticed in the scholarly literature. The piece represents the composer’s early attempts to break from the traditional compositional standards of his contemporaries as well as his early attempts to include folk elements in his works. This document presents a detailed history of the piece and the circumstances surrounding its composition as well as a brief history of the genre of the piano quintet. The author focuses on the musical influences that Bartók acquired during his musical education and how they influenced the Piano Quintet in addition to the folk origins so intrinsic to the Hungarian language and culture that also appear in the piece. A detailed analysis of the slow movement is included due to the extraordinary way in which it simultaneously looks backwards and markedly forward.

No description available.

No description available.

It is the belief of many tuners that the best education for the young tuner is to do apprentice work in a piano factory where he must learn all the construction of the piano from the frame work of the case to the final setting of the tuning pins. It appears that most tuners are men now in the late forties to late fifties and were either factory-trained or apprentice-trained by an experienced tuner. The situation has changed and the apprenticeship method of training professional men such as lawyers and physicians has long since been discarded as a method of education. It is now the generally accepted plan to go to a college or university where such specialized training is given or offered under the direction and tutelage of specialists, and where students learn other essential subjects, the knowledge of which is necessary to the success of any educated man or woman.

There are no figures available, but if a survey were made, possibly more people would be found engaged in the study and teaching of piano than any other musical instrument. It is much to be desired for both teachers and students to have an intimate acquaintance with the principles underlying the structure of modern piano technique. The situation as it generally exists contrasts sharply with the ideal situation. The ignorance of this important phase of piano study causes an enormous annual waste of time and money on the part of students. With an adequate technical knowledge, teachers, instead of allowing their pupils to practice blindly and mechanically, would be able to explain the reason for each movement they ask them to perform. Many failures in both classes occur because of the lack of understanding of what piano playing requires.

Master of Music / Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance / Frederick Burrack / Prominent elementary music methods like Orff-Schulwerk, Kodaly, Suzuki, Music Learning Theory, and Dalcroze Eurhythmics share a belief in a sound-before-symbol approach: delaying notation instruction in order to first develop audiation, musical vocabularies, and concrete musical experiences. Unfortunately, piano pedagogy has not taken the same journey, with method books continuing to center on reading from the earliest. While piano pedagogy has made great strides as a professional music community, now it must adopt the same sound-before symbol approach of its general music colleagues, making room for experiential and creative activities as a core component of instruction. Through the integration of movement, exploration, and improvisation activities like the included examples, teachers can move beyond strict adherence to the method book, and change their focus from notational literacy to authentic musicianship.